etymology of "wannabe"

[Mark A Peterson]

Dan's point is well taken.  Assuming we could track down an "earliest
version" of the term (in the best OED tradition), there's no reason to
assume the other uses sprang from this.  The coinage appears so simple and
obvious that a multiple origins hypothesis isn't far-fetched.

So can we do anything with performative dimensions?

Best,

Mark

Mark Allen Peterson
Asst. Professor of Anthropology
The American University in Cairo
PO Box 2511, Cairo 11511 EGYPT
peterson at aucegypt.edu

"Laughter overcomes fear, for it knows no inhibitions, no limitations. Its
idiom is never used by violence and authority."
          -- Mikhail Bakhtin
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Rosenblatt <danr at uchicago.edu>
To: linganth at galileo.cc.rochester.edu <linganth at galileo.cc.rochester.edu>
Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 9:08 PM
Subject: Re: etymology of "wannabe"


>To all:
>
>I remember hearing "wannabe" used among punk rockers in San Francisco in
>the early & mid eighties (I recall in particular hearing women with a
>certain look described as "Madonna wannabees"--a happy bit of internal
>rhyming).
>
>But, to take this discussion beyond the issue of "where did you first hear
>it," it seems to me (purely as a matter of speculation) perfectly plausible
>to think that the word could have been coined multiple times, given the
>right conditions--which might include the already available "wanna" as an
>alternate pronunciation of "want-to"; a general acceptance of
>nominalization; and American's penchant for assuming new identities at the
>drop (or putting-on) of a hat.
>
>Does anyone else have any thoughts on whether new words always spread by
>diffusion, or whether independent invention is sometime possible?  Is there
>perhaps even some evidence out there pertaining to a similar coinage?
>
>Danny
>
>|||||||||||||||||||||||
>
>Daniel Rosenblatt
>danr at uchicago.edu
> *
>Wesleyan University
>Center for the Humanities
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>  *
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>
>